This $26,000 Chair Makes You Feel Like You’re Floating On Air

September 30, 2016

Truth be told, we have no idea how the Elysium Chair works. And we have no idea how it feels to sit in its frictionless system, either. What we know is, the darn thing is fascinating, with a design that claims to make you feel like you’re floating in zero-gravity once the chair is fully reclined.

Yes, you can use it like any chair around the house, sitting you upright while you watch TV, type on a laptop, or mash virtual buttons on a tablet. As such, you can set it up in the home office, the living room, or anywhere else around the house where an armchair would come in handy.

What you’re buying the Elysium for, however, is the reclining function, which lets you tilt the chair backwards to a more relaxed position, eventually reaching the 25-degree angle where pressure becomes evenly distributed and the shear approaches zero resulting in a sensory experience that designer David Hugh describes as a state of equilibrium similar to those of people in weightless environments. A lever allows you to access the reclining function, with a locking action enabling you to stay in place once you find your sweet spot.

Construction is a mix of carbon fiber, milled aluminum, and stainless steel, with the actual seat cut in molded viscoelastic foam and upholstered in Scandinavian leather. Each one is built bespoke, with every piece customized after a client consultation.

We don’t know if the Elysium Chair is worth the asking price, but the darn thing retails for $26,000.